Last night my wife and along with our two sons took in the Jays-Indians game, something the four of us haven't done in years. School, schedules and "life" has prevented all four of us to have this rare chance (this was the first all four of us had a beer together at a game,too...43 bucks later!).
With the first Jays pennant race in over twenty years, the stadium has been filled since the trade deadline, and people have discovered that the Jays are pretty good at baseball, eh? In other words, people who've never been, are showing up en masse to ball games. And they need to learn some manners.
I'm talking about the constant parade to and from their seats to the concession stands while the game is on. There's two out, two on and a threat for the home side to break open the game with one swing of the bat...yes, this would be the most opportune time to get up and get some freakin' nachos.
There was a group of seven two rows in front of us that at one point late in the game, stood one at a time to make their ay to the aisle. Each family member would then stand in the aisle, yell at the person they'd been sitting beside, and that person would get up and make their way to the aisle...and the whole process would begin again, like a möbius ribbon from Hell. The poor inconvenienced couple, not related to this clan, sitting on the aisle seats were up and down like a toilet seat.
There was, however, a spectacularly underdressed, buxom young lady in the seat in front of one of my sons who was up and down like that toilet seat through the game. She is immediately disqualified from this rant. I mean "spectacularly underdressed, buxom" is putting it mildly, so I didn't mind.
This isn't directed at the Rogers Centre ushers, who judging by the track record of the newly hired president of the team, will have their marching orders much clearly defined by the start of next season. No, this is directed at the no-mind fellow Canadians who have no respect for the game or fellow "fans". I work for a junior hockey team and our ushers are psychotically stringent in upholding the "wait-til-the-next-whistle" rule before heading back to your seats. It's said ISIS wouldn't stand a chance if we sent our rink ushers over ther to straighten them out.
I specifically singled out Canadians in this screed, because in my many trips to the US for baseball and football games, I've never had to put up with such disregard for in-game etiquette (I've been to Bills-Dolphins games at the Ralph that had more decorum, as far as politeness goes).
One thing I noticed at the Rogers Centre was the lack of do's and do not do's announced before the game. At our junior games we announce that fans should wait til the end of the play before leaving or returning to their seats.
Our US cousins get a lot of grief these days, societally, but to their credit, they do know how to watch a game. Wait to the whistle, wait til the end of the inning, and then go get yer nachos. Us polite Canucks? A Jays ticket is the hot ticket in town? Woo hoo, let's go! It's base ball, right? Alright...we can get nachos!
Yes, I could send this rant to the new Jays president, Mark Shapiro...a guy who made the fan "experience" enjoyable at Progressive Field (speaking as a satisfied customer), but I thought of venting to real gentlemen first.
With the first Jays pennant race in over twenty years, the stadium has been filled since the trade deadline, and people have discovered that the Jays are pretty good at baseball, eh? In other words, people who've never been, are showing up en masse to ball games. And they need to learn some manners.
I'm talking about the constant parade to and from their seats to the concession stands while the game is on. There's two out, two on and a threat for the home side to break open the game with one swing of the bat...yes, this would be the most opportune time to get up and get some freakin' nachos.
There was a group of seven two rows in front of us that at one point late in the game, stood one at a time to make their ay to the aisle. Each family member would then stand in the aisle, yell at the person they'd been sitting beside, and that person would get up and make their way to the aisle...and the whole process would begin again, like a möbius ribbon from Hell. The poor inconvenienced couple, not related to this clan, sitting on the aisle seats were up and down like a toilet seat.
There was, however, a spectacularly underdressed, buxom young lady in the seat in front of one of my sons who was up and down like that toilet seat through the game. She is immediately disqualified from this rant. I mean "spectacularly underdressed, buxom" is putting it mildly, so I didn't mind.
This isn't directed at the Rogers Centre ushers, who judging by the track record of the newly hired president of the team, will have their marching orders much clearly defined by the start of next season. No, this is directed at the no-mind fellow Canadians who have no respect for the game or fellow "fans". I work for a junior hockey team and our ushers are psychotically stringent in upholding the "wait-til-the-next-whistle" rule before heading back to your seats. It's said ISIS wouldn't stand a chance if we sent our rink ushers over ther to straighten them out.
I specifically singled out Canadians in this screed, because in my many trips to the US for baseball and football games, I've never had to put up with such disregard for in-game etiquette (I've been to Bills-Dolphins games at the Ralph that had more decorum, as far as politeness goes).
One thing I noticed at the Rogers Centre was the lack of do's and do not do's announced before the game. At our junior games we announce that fans should wait til the end of the play before leaving or returning to their seats.
Our US cousins get a lot of grief these days, societally, but to their credit, they do know how to watch a game. Wait to the whistle, wait til the end of the inning, and then go get yer nachos. Us polite Canucks? A Jays ticket is the hot ticket in town? Woo hoo, let's go! It's base ball, right? Alright...we can get nachos!
Yes, I could send this rant to the new Jays president, Mark Shapiro...a guy who made the fan "experience" enjoyable at Progressive Field (speaking as a satisfied customer), but I thought of venting to real gentlemen first.
) talking with an Englishman. There was a close game on the TV, playoffs IIRC, that had the attention of most people there, except of course the Englishman. He commented that it seemed a very boring game. He was a bit taken aback when I said, "not any more than cricket! To Tony's point, I started analyzing each pitch for him. What would the pitcher throw? Curve or slider, and what's a slider? Man on first. Does he steal? Bunt? What base should the right fielder throw to. All those little nuances of the game that are well known to any of us that played it, but lost on someone else. We spent a very pleasant 2 hours talking about all this, and in the end I wanted to go see a cricket match!
